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Warren: We went to school together in Baltimore. She was a junior; I was a sophomore. In math I was just scribbling on the desk. One day, I came in and someone had written, "Quit writing on the desk." I wrote back and then we started leaving notes under the desk. So it finally got time to meet. I'm standing outside of class with all the guys.

All of a sudden this girl comes up. She asks me, "Who's Warren?" I puff my chest out, make myself look bigger, all 120 pounds of me, and say, "I am." She said, "I'm Lisa. I'm checking you out for my friend, Lynn." And then she walked away. So I started dating her friend for a bit. And then she dumped me. Lisa felt sorry for me and started to date me.

Lisa: No, I thought he was a nice guy. Lynn had asked me to check him out. She wanted to know if he was nice and good-looking and all that. And he was a nice, good-looking guy.

HIGH-SCHOOL SWEETHEARTS

Warren: Well, when I first saw her I was a little disappointed that she was just checking me out for a friend.

Lisa: I really wasn't interested in getting hot and heavy at first. But he grew on me. We fell in love.

Warren: We came from different families. My family was very strict. Her family was much more relaxed. When I found her, it was like a relief, that type of environment. The first time I met her family, they welcomed me with open arms.

GETTING HOT AND HEAVY

Lisa: We both graduated. I wanted to be a teacher, but I wanted to be a mother before I became a teacher. He went off to boot camp, and when he got back we got engaged. We were married young. But he was pushing earlier.

Warren: About a month after we met, I did ask her to marry me. I was really enamored.

Lisa: I thought, "Uh, OK." I wasn't shocked when he asked. He's a very passionate guy. It's all or nothing with him. It was probably a year and a half before we officially got engaged.

THE WEDDING

Lisa: It was nice. We had about 200 people there. It was a nice Catholic wedding. No Mass -- I didn't want people to fall asleep.

Warren: I came up the day before because I was at Camp Lejeune. I had just got my haircut for the Marines. So all I thought I had to do was put on my clothes and brush my teeth. Shouldn't be too hard.

I'm standing there, people are coming into the church. My brother-in-law was my best man. Two minutes beforehand, he pulls out his keys. He says, "Get in my car. Go." I said, "Huh?" He said, "Get the hell out of here. You don't want to do this." He pushes me out the door and closes it on me. Now I'm getting nervous, "What's going on?" All of a sudden the music starts playing and he pulls me in and pushes me toward the altar. I'm all nervous now. I get up there, I had my shades on, trying to be Joe Cool. My mom was looking at me, "Take those off."

Lisa: My dad walks me down and he says, "You don't have to do this. We can turn around, and I can walk you right out." I said, "No, Dad, I'm ready." We were young, but we were ready.

KEYS TO A GOOD MARRIAGE

Lisa: Keep the humor. Respect. Let me get my way. Just kidding. Mutual respect. I couldn't see myself without him.

Warren: My way of putting it is like this. This is my house. You've got to know you're the king of the castle -- when she's not around.

Lisa: I like that.

Warren: I was a recruiter, and I had a lot of Marines who came up to me and said, "How do you do it after 20 years?"

When you become a Marine, you have that pride and that honor. Well, things will happen after that that will put you down. It's like marriage. It's not always perfect, but you always go back to why you did it in the first place. Why did I marry this person? Why do I love this person? And you put them first. My job is not my life. My wife and my family are my life.